The Case of the Black Gauntlet
The Black Gauntlet is the first short story in the anthology Biggles of the Special Air Police which was first published in 1953. Synopsis Someone has sent Biggles a black gauntlet. He has seen one like it before--it had been thrown clear of an aircraft he had shot down during the war. While he mulls over this puzzle, he is persuaded to act as technical adviser for a film. On the film set, he discovers a Me-109 with a black gauntlet painted on it.... Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Biggles receives a strange gift by mail--a black gauntlet with a gold swastika on the back. It brings back memories of the Second World War. He had seen such a gauntlet before. He had called at the American base at Marham. Another Spitfire also showed up and began attacking the American bombers. It was obviously a capture machine being flown by a German pilot. Biggles went after it and shot it down. The pilot had been killed but the gauntlet had been thrown clear. Air Commodore Raymond turns up with a guest, Group Captain "Wizard" Gainsforth, a former photo reconnaissance pilot and now head of the Crown Films Corporation. He is making a high profile war film and had lined up top notch actors including a leading German film star and test pilot named Thea Hertz. Gainsforth asks Biggles to be the technical adviser for the air combet scenes. Biggles reluctantly agrees. Biggles arrives at the film set and to his surprise, sees that the Messerschmitt 109 being used for the filming has the same gauntlet with gold swastika painted on the fuselage. Gainsforth notices Biggles' reaction. By coincidence, he had also been at Marham that day. He had photographed the incident and had actually kept the gauntlet which he found on the ground. He had painted a facsimile on the fuselage as a touch of realism. Biggles asks to see the gauntlet. Gainsforth takes him to his office but the box where it is kept is now empty! The filming carries on smoothly until the last day when Gainsforth has a problem. The stunt pilot due to fly a Spitfire against Thea Hertz's Messerschmitt hasn't turned up and can't be contacted. Gainsforth only has one more day to do the filming as Thea has to depart. Would Biggles mind flying the Spitfire? Reluctantly again, Biggles agrees. Once airborne, Thea calls Biggles over the radio to reveal her true intentions. She had been at Marham that day where she was a German spy. Biggles had shot down and killed her brother. Now Thea has live ammunition in her aircraft. She intends to kill Biggles and then drop incendiaries to kill the film crew on the ground. After that, she would defect to East Germany. Biggles has a dilemma. He couldn't shoot at a woman even assuming he had real ammunition but somehow he must thwart her plan to bomb the film crew. In the ensuing air combat, Thea's lack of experience becomes apparent. Time after time, Biggles gets the better of her. He hopes this would make her come to her senses, but nothing doing. Thea presses her attacks. Eventually Biggles in evading her, goes low. He spots some telegraph wires just in time and manages to fly under them. Thea follows but, failing to see the wires, hits them and crashes. Biggles lands and runs to the crash to help. Thea has survived and stands up and draws a pistol. Biggles shouts at her not to shoot but she does so anyway. The flash from her gun ignites the petrol fumes and she is killed in the inferno. Gainsforth's film is a great success but during the premiere, he has a confession to make. He knew all along that the German pilot whom Biggles had shot down was Thea Hertz's brother. When he signed her up, she had insisted on having an expert direct the air combat sequences and she had suggested Biggles. Gainsforth had no choice but to try toget Biggles on board. He had sent the gauntlet to Biggles hoping that his curiosity would lead Biggles into accepting. He had also schemed to keep the stunt pilot away on the last day of filming. Gainsforth had, however, been shocked to see Thea load live ammunition into her aircraft and he had secretly switched them for blanks, so that Biggles was never in any danger. But he had not told him because if he had done so, Biggles would not have flown as realistically as he had done and the film would not have won its prize. Characters The Special Air Police *Air Commodore Raymond *Biggles *Algy Lacey *Ginger Hebblethwaite *Bertie Lissie Others *Group Captain "Wizard" Gainsforth *Thea Hertz *Max Peterson Aircraft *Supermarine Spitfire *Messerschmitt Me 109 *De Havilland Gipsy Moth - camera aircraft *Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Places Visited *Marham *Private airfield in Essex Mentioned Research Notes *Aerial victories of Biggles and friends **Biggles narrates an old victory of his where he shot down a Spitfire which had been fighting under false colours over Marham. **It is debatable whether one should count the Me-109 piloted by Thea Hertz. But she was attacking him. Biggles' Spitfire was unarmed but his deliberate actions did lead to an outcome he intended: his pursuer crashed. So it would be fair to count it. References to the past Incongruities Chronology Category:Short stories Category:Biggles short stories